Weight loss beginnings are so exciting!
We’re jazzed. Positive that this time will be different. We’re all in!
Buoyed by the initial excitement and enthusiasm it takes to get started, we promise ourselves that this time we’ll make the changes we can stick with for a lifetime.
Lifestyle, baby. It’s all about committing to a healthier lifestyle.
So, with high expectations and can-do determination, you stock the frig with healthy food choices. You strip the pantry of all the expired bags and cans and toss the junk food. Well, maybe after just one last nibble.
You imagine your future self, trim, active, energetic and in love with life.
Although you set out with the highest hopes and intentions, there’s some voice in the back of your head that acknowledges that it’s not going to be, shall we say, a piece of cake. But all in all, you’re still gung-ho.
I bet you think weight loss is all about the food.
And regular exercise and maybe some vitamins or supplements.
You probably already know that you should be eating more veggies and which foods are the healthier choices. Let’s face it, you’ve probably known that for years.
You’ve probably racked up numerous attempts at weight loss. Tried numerous programs, diets, exercise regimens and made hundreds of promises to yourself to make better choices.
Maybe you’ve even reached your goal weight. Maybe you were able to keep it off as long as you faithfully adhered to packaged diet foods, counting calories, points or macros, or making time for rigorous exercise.
But, maybe you regained all that lost weight and then some. Maybe you now weigh even more than you did when you first jumped on the diet merry-go-round way back when.
However, I’m willing to guess that of all the diets, diet programs and exercise regimens prescribed for weight loss, there’s one thing that none of them emphasized.
How often were you explicitly taught how to develop new habits of thought and behavior to support and sustain change? And how to make those new habits stick?
Or what to do when the going gets tough. And it will get tough. Cause life happens.
Cue the sad face emoji because over time the messy middle can bog us down.
Challenges, set-backs, disappointments, feelings of overwhelm and confusion can complicate even the best of intentions. Even stop us in our tracks.
The scale will not cooperate. There’s no time to prep and cook. Everyone wants to eat something different. It’s your birthday, a holiday or another special occasion and, as we all know, that demands indulgences. Or you eat off plan and, in a moment of rash decision making, just throw in the towel and have a f-it day, week, or month which can drag on for years.
Before you know it, the nagging realization that this is harder than you imagined begins to creep in. The initial enthusiasm that infused you with so much motivation and determination is not your dependable ally anymore.
That wave of glorious optimism and excitement you rode in on begins to flatten and ebb.
It becomes more and more difficult to revive your flagging commitment. Much more of a slog than a rush.
The hardest part of any change is sticking to it for the long run.
But, never fear, your weight loss journey need not end there on that sorry note.
The key step to making change sustainable is to establish and practice a whole new architecture of habits. Habits of thought and habits of action. These new habits will become your go-to secret weapons for regaining motivation and reinforcing your commitment when the going gets tough.
With a matrix of new habits of thought and action specifically created by you for you, you can revive that wavering commitment. You can revitalize your willingness to carry on, even when the going gets tough.
I bet when you got started you carefully considered what to eat, and maybe even when, but how much time have you devoted to creating and reinforcing the habits needed to sustain all the changes and commitments?
Weight loss success and sustainability is all about building an architecture of habits, both of thought and action.
They form the safety net to support your commitments when the initial enthusiasm for the weight loss process falters.
Here are some areas where developing new habits really can make weight loss a lot easier:
- Eating foods on protocol.
- Meal planning in advance.
- Shopping for food online or in the market.
- Prepping food in advance.
- Adding more veggies to your meals.
- Planning exceptions to your food protocol in advance.
- Incorporating intermittent fasting into your daily routine.
- Learning how to clean fast.
- Developing small, easy to implement routines to minimize daily “friction” as you go about your day.
- Knowing what you need to practice to groove new these new habits of thought and action and actually doing it.
How to create new habits.
According to James Clear in his book, Atomic Habits, the 4 laws of atomic habits are based on the four stages of habit formation.
These stages are the cue, the craving, the response, and the reward. Every habit you have is linked to these four stages.
The cue is the element that triggers your brain to notice an opportunity for a reward, or pleasure. Remember the motivational triad, as in seek pleasure? A cue can be a smell, a sound, an event, an interaction, or anything else that triggers a desire.
This desire is what he labels a craving.
The craving is the emotional experience you attach to a certain cue. When you notice the cue, your brain anticipates an opportunity for a change in your physical or emotional state. You crave the satisfaction that change will bring. So, it’s this craving that prompts you to do something.
Therefore, the actual behavior, or habit, you perform is in the hopes that you will feel and experience whatever emotional state you desire. Your brain guides you to take a certain action in the belief that it will create the feeling of satisfaction you want.
Again, let’s remember that everything we do is in an attempt to feel good in some way.
The reward is the satisfaction/emotion/feeling you derive from the action you take. Now you have successfully satisfied your craving and changed your physical or emotional state.
Throughout this process, your brain builds a neural pathway from the cue to this state of pleasure. Every time you experience the same cue, the brain will be triggered to desire that pleasure again. You will be prompted to perform the same action.
This is the pattern that creates a habit.
Isn’t it about time to define and build habits that enhance your weight loss efforts?
And, conversely, isn’t it about time to extinguish those habits of thought and action that make weight loss harder than it needs to be?
YES IT IS!
So take me up on my offer for your FREE Strategy Call. Then you can see for yourself how it’s possible to jump start weight loss by creating beneficial new habits and identifying and then squashing all those bad habits that have undermined your weight loss efforts.
Developing new supportive habits can help you reach your weight loss goals with a lot less stress and drama.
It’s totally possible to make 2022 your year to create the healthiest you. No matter your age, stage or past disappointments.
Jump start your fresh start. A year from now you will thank yourself you reached out to me today.
I’m looking forward to meeting you soon.
It’s Never Too Late to make your weight loss journey easier. Let’s go!
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